Spring
Sound the flute!Now it's mute!Bird's delight,Day and night,Nightingale,In the dale,Lark in sky,--Merrily,Merrily merrily, to welcome in the year.
Little boy,Full of joy;Little girl,Sweet and small;Cock does crow,So do you;Merry voice,Infant noise;Merrily, merrily, to welcome in the year.
Little lamb,Here I am;Come and lickMy white neck;Let me pullYour soft wool;Let me kissYour soft face;Merrily, merrily, to welcome in the year.
About this text
Spring is in the public domain. This text is taken from Poems of William Blake, Project Gutenberg ebook #574; the transcription's header, footer and licence were removed and nothing else was changed. You may copy, print and reuse it freely.
Cite as: William Blake, Spring, in Poems of William Blake (1783–1794), text of Project Gutenberg ebook #574, Laurel, https://laurelpoetry.com/poem/blake-poems/spring.html, id L01995.
Form and metre
Spring is 27 lines in 3 stanzas of 9 lines each. The metre is trochaic dimeter, measured from the stress the words themselves fix (confidence 84%). 93% of its stressed syllables fall where the metre puts the beat. The lines average 4.0 syllables. 2 lines end on an unstressed syllable, a feminine ending. 11% of the lines run on without a stop at the line end.
See other poems in trochaic dimeter.
Measured by Laurel's pipeline, not copied from a handbook: how stress and metre are counted, how rhyme is lettered, how a drifted rhyme is found. Where the dictionary cannot confirm a rhyme the letter is withheld, not guessed.
Rhyme words, stanza by stanza
The word that ends each line, lettered by the rhyme it makes; a dash is a line whose rhyme the dictionary could not confirm.
- 1 AABBCC--- fluteA · muteA · delightB · nightB · nightingaleC · daleC · sky · merrily · year
- 2 AA------- boyA · joyA · girl · small · crow · you · voice · noise · year
- 3 AA--BB--- lambA · amA · lick · neck · pullB · woolB · kiss · face · year
Scansion, line by line
Each line with its syllable count and the stresses the words themselves fix: / stressed, ˘ unstressed, · a syllable the word leaves free and the metre decides. Read against trochaic dimeter. How this is done.
| Line | Syl. | Stress |
|---|---|---|
| Sound the flute! | 3 | ··· |
| Now it's mute! | 3 | ··· |
| Bird's delight, | 3 | ·˘/ |
| Day and night, | 3 | ··· |
| Nightingale, | 3 | /˘˘ |
| In the dale, | 3 | ··· |
| Lark in sky,-- | 3 | ··· |
| Merrily, | 3 | /˘˘ |
| Merrily merrily, to welcome in the year. | 12 | /˘˘/˘˘·/˘··· |
| Little boy, | 3 | /˘· |
| Full of joy; | 3 | ··· |
| Little girl, | 3 | /˘· |
| Sweet and small; | 3 | ··· |
| Cock does crow, | 3 | ··· |
| So do you; | 3 | ··· |
| Merry voice, | 3 | /˘· |
| Infant noise; | 3 | /˘· |
| Merrily, merrily, to welcome in the year. | 12 | /˘˘/˘˘·/˘··· |
| Little lamb, | 3 | /˘· |
| Here I am; | 3 | ··· |
| Come and lick | 3 | ··· |
| My white neck; | 3 | ··· |
| Let me pull | 3 | ··· |
| Your soft wool; | 3 | ··· |
| Let me kiss | 3 | ··· |
| Your soft face; | 3 | ··· |
| Merrily, merrily, to welcome in the year. | 12 | /˘˘/˘˘·/˘··· |
The reader shows the same poem with its rhymes coloured and a stress row above each line, the notes beside their stanzas, and any word's definition on a tap; the analysis page takes the whole book apart. How every part of this site was made.